Indio Launches New Leadership Academy

Have you ever wondered what it takes to run a city? Well, for some Indio residents, they’ll find out this fall, when the city launches their new Leadership Academy. This new academy will help residents unveil the inner workings of the city through an engaging series of sessions, all for a positive change. The Indio Leadership Academy is a seven week program, designed to help residents get a clearer understanding of the city’s functions. The residents will learn different programs each week, from finance and human resources, to community service. "The seven sessions consist of pretty much different department heads, city manager, so there will be different topics per session." says Jose Ramirez, the Management Analyst for the City of Indio. This is the first time that the City of Indio has incorporated a program like this into their community, limiting this first set of sessions to 25 participants, all who were encouraged to submit an application to be a part of the process. "We actually were hoping to get a very diverse crowd, and so far, from the looks of it, I believe we did." Ramirez says. As far as the formatting of each session. "It’ll be more or less like a school setting, so it’ll start off at 6pm. We’ll have a light dinner, give everybody a chance to kind of meet each other and make some connections and then we’ll have two to three presenters per session." Each session will end with a 15 to 20 minute question and answer portion. With many residents prepared, bringing new ideas. "I would help fix the streets, public parks, make something more recreational, a waterpark would be fun in this heat as well. Something like that, more family-wise." Jaime, an Indio resident says. Excited to see what positive changes his fellow residents help bring to the city. "You get different perspectives from different people that have been here probably longer than the ones that have been here…" The first official session starts, September 12… with all 25 spots filled, and the city hopeful that this new program continues for years to come.